The beloved, hated, and infamous Joey Vento lost his battle with colon cancer at the age of 71. What's sad is that 99.9% of Philadelphian's won't contribute this to the fact that he ate cheese steaks his whole life.

I'm not happy or joyous about the death of any human being. But....yes he was a major crasshole!

This is the guy who made national news coverage for putting a sign up at the order taking window that said something to the effect of order in English or we won't serve you. He failed to realize or appreciate the fact that Pat's & Geno's Steaks is not only a Philly tradition but a tourist attraction. And its reasonable for people from other countries to want to experience the Philly cheese steak legacy. I would love to see him go to Italy and be told that he won't be getting any service unless he speaks in Italian!

He's also been doing local radio commercials around here about how he recently had health problems and "It's a good thing ObamaCare didn't go into place otherwise he would be waiting for medical assistance for years!"

He's also been doing local radio commercials around here about how he recently had health problems and "It's a good thing ObamaCare didn't go into place otherwise he would be waiting for medical assistance for years!"

This is exactly what I was thinking!!! How ironic, or something. I'm with you, GK, that nobody's passing should be celebrated, but you know, yeah...

This is the guy who made national news coverage for putting a sign up at the order taking window that said something to the effect of order in English or we won't serve you. He failed to realize or appreciate the fact that Pat's & Geno's Steaks is not only a Philly tradition but a tourist attraction. And its reasonable for people from other countries to want to experience the Philly cheese steak legacy. I would love to see him go to Italy and be told that he won't be getting any service unless he speaks in Italian!

That's not really what happened.

He didn't refuse service if you couldn't speak English but said you may not end up with what you want if you cannot clearly place an order. Have you seen the lines outside of this place? People just pouring into the streets. I'm surprised someone hasn't gotten hit by a car recently. The sign is still there, ""This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING Please 'SPEAK ENGLISH"

I can't imagine going to say, Italy, and expecting someone to take my order in English, try and figure out what I want, all while holding other people up. if I want to order something, Im gonna try my hardest to figure out how to say it or point to it on the menu. That was always the point of it all, to move people along.

Im really not a Vento fan, although he did donate a lot of money to good causes.

This is the guy who made national news coverage for putting a sign up at the order taking window that said something to the effect of order in English or we won't serve you. He failed to realize or appreciate the fact that Pat's & Geno's Steaks is not only a Philly tradition but a tourist attraction. And its reasonable for people from other countries to want to experience the Philly cheese steak legacy. I would love to see him go to Italy and be told that he won't be getting any service unless he speaks in Italian!

That's not really what happened.

He didn't refuse service if you couldn't speak English but said you may not end up with what you want if you cannot clearly place an order. Have you seen the lines outside of this place? People just pouring into the streets. I'm surprised someone hasn't gotten hit by a car recently. The sign is still there, ""This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING Please 'SPEAK ENGLISH"

I can't imagine going to say, Italy, and expecting someone to take my order in English, try and figure out what I want, all while holding other people up. if I want to order something, Im gonna try my hardest to figure out how to say it or point to it on the menu. That was always the point of it all, to move people along.

Im really not a Vento fan, although he did donate a lot of money to good causes.

It still smacks of incredible intolerance. By saying "THIS IS AMERICA" is so ridiculous. There are many languages spoken within the borders of America, by AMERICANS. American does not equal English.

missirish9 wrote:

if I want to order something, Im gonna try my hardest to figure out how to say it or point to it on the menu. That was always the point of it all, to move people along.

Which is what I'm sure all the patrons of this restaurant are trying to do. I doubt anyone would go and intentionally be difficult to understand. It's called having patience and tolerance for other human beings. Though, I must admit, I'm sort of tempted to go there and put on my worst fake accent and hold the whole line up just to peas someone off.

_________________Did you notice the slight feeling of panic at the words "Chicken Basin Street"? Like someone was walking over your grave? Try not to remember. We must never remember. - mumblesIs this about devilberries and nazifruit again? - footface

And I do believe that other countries who make money off of tourist are accepting of Americans not speaking their language and try to help whenever they can. Other countries are also better at speaking multiple languages than we are.

Philadelphia is a big tourist city and we get people visiting from all over the world. He should have been happy about the fact that someone from Toyko or Germany wanted to visit his business and experience his food.

And if his comment was totally based on immigrants being in this country than hes more of an asparagus than I thought. Because South Philly was and still is an Italian immigrant neighborhood.